Wandering in the wilderness - photographic recce of the Tuli Block.

I've just gotten back from spending some time in the beautiful Tuli Block just north of the South African border in Botswana. I traveled through with African Impact to look at the possibility of putting together a workshop there at some point in the future. I'm really happy to say that having spent just under a week there, I can say that it isn't a possibility, it's a definite!

Make sure to Modify

One of the first things you learn when you are working with flash is that you should never point it naked and straight at your subject from the camera. The answer is to get it off the camera and potentially bounced off of something.

The second lesson you very quickly learn is to put something in between the flash and the subject. This usually takes the guise of an umbrella, softbox or grid. It can, however, also end up being strange cookie cut designs or any number of weird and wonderful homebrew contraptions that are designed to bend and soften the light as much as possible. Every photographer has their own idea how this should be done so there is never a shortage of paraphernalia that you can buy to add to a truckload of modifiers that you already own but have forgotten how to use.

The last lesson you stumble upon is to change the colour of light. And it’s a doozy. I understand why it’s the last since it can be the most confusing and at times the least logical. Here’s the limited amount that I have learned, and hopefully it can help get to lesson 301.

Understanding Tripods and Heads - A new web article

I have finally had a chance to condense some articles on tripods and heads that were published in Photo Writing a while ago into a single web article. The article covers tripod legs and their materials as well as the various types of tripod heads that are available. Read the article by clicking through the website or by going to this url: http://www.limephoto.co.za/Tripods.html

Zen Zulu Wildlife Workshop - A note on keeping it steady

This last weekend I had my inaugural workshop at Zen Zulu Lodge in the Zululand Rhino Reserve Complex. This is a truly secluded little lodge that only caters to 6 guests. It is the epitome of 'getting away from it all'. It's still work - running a photography workshop - but I can think of far worse ways to spend the weekend than residing in the lap of luxury while spending time with avid photographers. Once again I need to pinch myself when I realise that I do this for a job.

Luxury besides, photographing in the rain can be troublesome at times and yet again we were unable to do any star-trail photography as the clouds seemed to have descended as we all arrived, and parted as we left (absolutely typical). Still, despite the rain we had some wonderful sightings of Giraffe and Rhino, as well as two of the reserves lionesses. Photographing in the rain also added something different to the usual sunny portraits of animals. It also meant for some spectacular sunrises and sunsets.

Location Portraiture and a Big Ole T-Rex

 Two years back I spent a day doing some creative portraiture at the Durban Natural History museum which I wrote about here. Turned out they liked the work that I did, so was invited back again, this time create some more images of the Director, Allison Ruiters and some of the Exhibitions Staff. Being a director of a large institution such as the museum meant we had to try and cram in as much shooting as possible in as short a period of time...naturally (not to mention the fact that state institutions - despite what critics would say - have rather limited budgets). Thankfully, shooting at the museum is always fun, with a wealth of 'things' to use in the imagery.

Jammin with Lynch - low light black and white

Band photography isn't something that I get to do that often, being known more for my industrial and commercial work in my home 'territory', but I grabbed at the opportunity to photograph Lynch as they go through the motions of recording an album. To start with we're just putting together some casual behind the scenes images that are likely to be used inside the CD jacket. Bevan, their frontman and I are stilling working through ideas for the cover, which no doubt I'll write about once we hit the nail on the creative head.